All eyes will be on Wolverhampton Sporting in cup clash

Andy Paddock’s side are taking on West Midlands Premier rivals Malvern Town in the quarter-finals of the West Midlands League Cup tonight (7.45pm).

And Sporting will be watched on by Scott Reynolds, the boss of Leighton Town – who will visit Pride Park for a fifth round FA Vase clash on Saturday, after the originally scheduled tie was called off at the weekend due to a waterlogged pitch.

The winner of that tie will host 1874 Northwich in the quarter-finals of the Vase.

For now, though, Paddock and his charges – who are in the running for four trophies – are solely focused on Malvern.

“We’ve been desperate to get a game on after having so many called off recently,” he said.

“I went to watch Malvern at the weekend (as they drew 2-2 with Black Country Rangers) and I was really impressed with them.

"They’ve improved quite a lot. We’ve just got to take things one game at a time.

“If we get complacent, we’ll get knocked out of two cups in a week.

“Leighton are coming down to watch us tonight, so we’ll be wary of that.

“We are going out to win the game, we’ll be giving it our all. It’s exciting times for the club.”

If Sporting beat Leighton on Saturday, they will be just two wins away from Wembley.

Their run to the fifth round has been ‘massive’, having never gone past the first round before.

“We’re the massive underdogs going into the game against Leighton, we know that,” said Paddock.

“That’s how it’s been throughout the competition, though.

“We’ve been the underdogs in the last four rounds so it’s nothing new to us.

“The competition is massive to us. The publicity the club has gained from it all has been great. The whole club is buzzing at the moment. We don’t want the run to end. We feel privileged to have got this far into it.”

Black Country Rangers boss Wayne Spicer is confident the good times are just around the corner.

Spicer’s charges delivered what he believes was another message to their rivals that they are a force to be reckoned with when they drew 2-2 with West Midlands League Premier Division leaders Malvern.

Rangers are second in the standings and while Malvern, Tividale and Wolverhampton Sporting all boast numerous games in hand, Spicer is aware their rivals have to deal with a hectic run-in that will see them playing two or three times a week.

“All we can do is concentrate on ourselves and try to keep winning games and putting points on the board,” he said.

“We have played more games than some of the sides around us but that may play into our hands towards the end of the season when they are playing a lot of games.

“We need to keep putting the pressure on by picking up points.”

A disappointing start to the season may ultimately prove costly for Rangers, but they are unbeaten in eight games since Spicer took charge and 12 overall.

“It was a good game on Saturday and I think we deserved to nick it,” he said.

“With a lot of other games being called off there were a few people who came to watch who would have gone away saying we are a good side. I think we made a bit of a statement that we are one of the best sides in this league.

“As a club we are showing ambition and putting things in place for the future.

“There are people here with passion who want to drive the club forward.”

Russell Garner and Kieron Clarke were the men on target for Rangers at the weekend.

Bilston Town Community had to settle for a point from their clash with Pegasus after squandering a two-goal lead.

Ryan Williams and Jason Hewitt had put Bilston in charge but the visitors hit back in the second half to grab a share of the spoils.

Dudley Town went down 3-1 at Hereford Boys Club.